Archive for June, 2007

The site globalwarminghysteria.com (I can’t even justify linking the site) is an anti-climate change and anti-environmental website similar to Junkscience.com (sponsored by Fox News, of course) that is so clearly manipulating and misinterpreting it’s data that you can’t help but laugh as you read through it. As I’ve seen more and more of these types of websites, it’s amazing how similar their arguments are. They tend to make fun of people rather than actually supporting an argument with facts. They try to undermine a person’s credibility rather than presenting credible data to contradict them. They pick and choose facts to support their arguments without putting them in context or telling you the whole story. As a start, the most common attempt at debunking climate change is the “natural variation” argument, that there has always been a natural cycle and isn’t out of the ordinary. The flaw in this argument is that they always look back only a few thousand years. Just a cursory glance at the graph from the EPA above, over 400 thousand years, makes it painfully obvious that we are far beyond any “natural fluctuation” in our current CO2 emissions. And although CO2 is only one of the many greenhouse gases, as far as scientists can tell it is the one that humans are most responsible for and can be attributed to climate change. I urge the naysayers to look at data concerning global warming with an open, scientifically oriented mind and I urge hard core environmentalists to avoid manipulating data to make points, no matter how important. It undermines the credibility of our arguments.
This is my response to it’s post calling John Ashton hypocritical for flying to other countries to persuade them to decrease their CO2 use:
You’re looking at this very one-sidedly. In order to educate others and spread the message of conservation and climate change, resources must be utilized. By criticizing Gore for his flights and his family home’s energy use and Ashton for his flights to persuade others to decrease CO2 emissions, you are highlighting your lack of understanding in the process of change. At this point, we must conserve where we can, yet current systems force us to use resources as a means to an end. Eventually there will be better, less energy-intensive methods of travel and doing this type of work, but at this time, flying to destinations to educate and bargain are their only options.
Reading through your site and your “ten myths of global warming”, it is obvious that you are being led by anti-environmentalist propaganda and have a poor grasp of many concepts. The statements in your “myths” are as warped as some extremist environmentalist claims. It is true and unfortunate that scare-mongering and distortion of data is occurring on the environmentalist front as well, which does undermine credibility at times and opens the movement to your type of poorly thought out criticism.
In general, however, the preponderance of scientific data shows that human activity on this planet is causing climate change and unless we act, we can look forward to unprecedented natural disasters and human suffering. If we step back, and with an open mind, look at the data that has been collected this is an inevitable conclusion. Nothing can be said 100% certainty and we know that models are flawed and need to be constantly revised as new data is recorded, but to ignore the threat just because we cannot “prove” some of these extrapolated theories is utter stupidity. We as humans need to act upon our best research in order to prevent widespread disaster, energy shortages, famine, floods and droughts. Instead of being part of the problem, you could be a part of the solution. I urge you to educate yourself on both the strengths and flaws involved with scientific method, avoid political entanglements, and take an objective, unbiased look at the data at hand and your opinion will surely change.

On Thursday, President Bush decided to use the gestapo-esque “executive privilege”, used occasionally by presidents past, refusing to submit documents subpoenaed for the case of the fired U.S. attorneys. He has also refused to permit testimony by two former senior White House aids.His stance is this: “. . . for the President to perform his constitutional duties, it is imperative that he receive candid and unfettered advice” from top aides.” Who would be “reluctant to communicate openly and honestly” if they actually had to be held accountable for suggesting to break the law, deceive the people, and manipulate power.

So what our President is saying is that he knows that firing 9 U.S. attorneys because they weren’t “loyal Bushies” was an illegal use of power, but he’s using his “supreme executive power” to stop the investigation so that he can’t actually be held accountable for breaking the law for his own party’s interests. Bush’s mafia’s response is that this whole thing is an unfair media circus, designed to make them look bad and take the focus off of real issues. This, unfortunately, is a poor and empty explanation. Back in the real world, the highest parts of our administration chose to fire 9 members of the Judicial branch of our government because they were actually doing their job from a non-partisan perspective rather than illegally altering evidence and ignoring wrongdoing. That certainly does not seem like a witch hunt, it appears to be a clear and illegal abuse of power.

“Executive Privilege” should not be a way for our President and his advisers to act illegally, against the interests of the people. Our government needs to be held accountable for their actions and if they cannot defend them, they need to be removed from office. There are already dozens of reasons to impeach Cheney and Bush – lying about 9/11, lying about WMDs in Iraq, lying about Iraq, manipulating EPA data, giving away billions of dollars in unnecessarily costly contracts, literally losing billions of dollars in “rebuilding costs”, manipulating scientific data on global warming, exposing Valerie Plame in retribution for her husband’s report on them lying about WMDs, and the list goes on. I can’t believe that they have the gall to call this a “Democratic witch hunt” when their own party’s witch hunt of President Clinton could only come up with a blowjob to impeach him.

Reposted from Make/Shift Blog. Please repost this, take five minutes to help end the war.

September 21, 2007…

… and every Third Friday thereafter. Today the Iraq Moratorium project steps onto the public stage!

Over 60% of Americans want this war over–yesterday. The political process is moving glacially, at best, to make that happen. It’s got to stop! We’ve got to stop it!

The idea is simple. On September 21 and on every subsequent Third Friday, millions of Americans will break with their daily routine to take some concrete step to demand an end to the war and the return home of the troops.

The hallmark will be the wearing of black ribbons and armbands, in mourning for all of those who have died in this senseless adventure–Iraqis, American and other coalition troops, and others. All of us who want this war ended can decide what steps we will take, individually or with others, on September 21. Together, acting where we live, work and study, we will create a mighty shout so loud that the media won’t be able to white it out and the politicians won’t be able to ignore it.

The Iraq Moratorium is not an organization. It was initiated by a small group of anti-war activists from very diverse backgrounds. We see it as a project that will strengthen the work of existing anti-war groups. Even more important, the clear and simple message, the local focus and the variety of activities it can encompass will bring into motion great numbers who have not yet taken any action against the war.

It is a 21st century project: the Internet will help reach tens of millions with this message. Please help by forwarding this message widely, and in as many ways as possible.

To learn more, to pledge to take part in the Iraq Moratorium, and to get involved, please go to the website today.

A new “Water Theater” is being planned for the Canary Islands which will not only be a seaside cultural center for performing arts, but will also serve as an innovative desalination plant. The architecture of the sea-facing wall is such that cool sea water is pumped into tubes then sprayed on a membrane through which sun-warmed air flows. The warm air over the cooler tubes causes the condensation of fresh water which drips into collecting troughs below. This is essentially a giant solar convection powered dehumidifier that supposedly can provide enough fresh water for an entire city! It also combines aesthetic architecture with renewable resource management and doubles as a theater that benefits the entire community. I’m curious to see what a dehumidifier of this size does to the local weather patterns, though.See the video on Discovery.com

In a partial victory on June 21st, the Senate passed a new energy bill that requires a “10 in 10”, or 10 mpg increase in 10 years, to 35 mpg for auto manufacturers’ CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards. Not suprisingly, the American auto industry was out in gangbusters fighting this resolution and although this was a heavy blow to their unscrupulous production of gas-guzzling monstrosities, their friends in the oil and energy industries bought their way out of the parts of the bill that would have cost them money. Other provisions of this energy bill included raising taxes on oil companies that would have generated $32 billion dollars for tax breaks on alternative energy and fuels as well as legislation requiring electric utilities to significantly increase energy produced from renewable sources. The former was blocked by aggressive campaigning by the oil lobbyists, and the latter was blocked by, according to the NY Times, “Republicans.”

So here we have a bittersweet victory. Over the next 10 years, American car makers must increase their fleet’s average fuel economy to a whopping 35 mpg. They have already been complaining that this will cost an extra $5000-$7000 per car and “it’s not fair, foreign manufacturers have been able to meet these standards for years, how will we sell our SUVs, how will we continue to ignore the destruction of the environment so that we can make more money?” OK, I’m paraphrasing, but they were definitely whining.

Lobbyist/government rant: My biggest issue is, how could our Congress, representing the best interests of the people of the United States, in good conscience have allowed oil and energy companies to dictate the future of our national energy policy? I know this is a completely naive question, but when there is blatant corruption and bribery afoot, how can it be allowed to go on? It’s disgusting and an insult to our founding fathers and what America is supposed to and used to stand for.

Governmental procedure rant: Looking through the Thomas Database, the Library of Congress’s legislative search engine to write about this topic, I found multiple resolutions submitted for alternative energy programs, incentives, efficiency increases, and various other excellent ideas for decreasing our energy dependence. I can’t, however, imagine a less efficient way to run a government. Anybody can take time and manpower to research and generate their own proposal, it gets submitted, eventually reviewed by a committee, kicked around, filed, revised, filed again, brought forth for review, potentially debated, revised again, scheduled for another review, reviewed, loopholes and earmarks added, debated again, revised again, and maybe brought forth for a vote. Multiply this by hundreds of proposals that may be redundant, poorly informed, supported by special interests and corporate lobbyists (legal bribery), and it’s no wonder we can’t get anything done!

Our favorite clothing company, Patagonia, has released their new line of wetsuits:
“Patagonia wetsuits use the highest quality Japanese neoprene – made from 80% non-petroleum based ingredients – which has a 98% higher closed cell ratio than other neoprene.

We line the entire wetsuit with a merino wool grid, bonded to recycled polyester, to trap more insulative dead-air space and quickly wick moisture away from the skin. (Pat. Pending)”

We all know the story by now, CIA operative Valerie Plame gets exposed in retaliation for her husband’s article exposing faults (ie, lack of WMDs) in the Bush administration’s handling of prewar Iraq intelligence, a partial investigation ensues, it culminates in the hanging of Scooter Libby for perjuring. At the end of it all, he has been sentenced 30 months in jail and fined $250,000 and news agencies are calling the whole thing “over”. But is it really over? Bush still has the power to pardon Libby if he so chooses. Should he? Will he?
It doesn’t really matter.
Does anyone care that Carl Rove, Dick Cheney, and George Bush haven’t even been investigated properly for this whole ordeal? Did anyone notice that no fault was placed and no punishment was actually given for exposing Plame in the first place? It is incredulous that the press and the people have allowed this witch hunt to continue to “completion”. Once again, we should be disappointed and outraged by our government’s handling of a serious situation, allowing them to present us with a slipshod puppet show and being satisfied with their predictable, fenestrated, and poorly written plot.

Climate Change and Peak Oil

In the United States, we use over 20 million barrels of oil per day, over 7 billion barrels per year, importing more than half of this volume from Africa, the Middle East, Russia, and other oil-producing states.
In purchasing this oil from other parts of the world we put billions of dollars per year into the hands of oil shieks, outdated theocratic rulerships, radical Islamic militants, and even terrorists. The pursuit of this oil has many costs, including the billions of American tax dollars spent on a war that is largely political in order to secure our access to this resource. Already unstable, any breakdown in the current oil economy will lead to skyrocketing fuel prices for Americans. Even the experts within the oil industry predict "peak oil", that is, the highest possible global oil production, to come anywhere within the next 10-50 years. After that point the maximum amount of oil that we can pump out of the ground will decline despite the growing demand for oil for energy, plastics, gasoline, jet fuel, and the many other uses for petroleum. This is a second major reason for a fuel cost spike, that will hit our economy terribly, from which we may not ever recover.
A second major global crisis that is intimately intertwined with energy is climate change. The latest data suggests that the polar ice caps are melting even faster than previously predicted, leading to erratic weather patterns, severe droughts and floods, and rising sea levels. If our current energy consumption continues to grow as predicted, we will have set the stage for severe natural disasters displacing millions of people from their homes, killing an unestimateable number of humans and animal species, costing billions of relief dollars, as well as costing more than 5% per year of global economic growth indefinitely. These two issues go hand in hand – our voracious appetite for energy requires the burning of more and more fossil fuels which in turn leads to more of the CO2 emissions that cause global warming. This is not supposition and is not theory. It is fact. There are many resources to support these estimates and projections from leading politicians, economists, climate experts, geologists, and other experts in their fields.
What this means is that this energy crisis will occur within many of our lifetimes and all of our children's lifetimes. We cannot leave the downfall of our civilization and the scarring of our globe as a legacy to our next generation. Do not take the media’s word, or my word for that matter, research it for yourself so you understand the dire position of our current crises.